Content Marketing Lessons Learned from the World’s Smartest People

It’s what we’ve always wanted to hear: we may have more in common with the world’s smartest people than we think.

I was surfing the Web this morning when I stumbled upon an infographic from NowSourcing showing the good and bad habits of the world’s smartest people and it got me thinking, “This has a lot to do with content marketing.”

Sure, these guys may be well above your IQ level (the average IQ is 100, while this group is above “Genius” and “Extraordinary Genius”), but the positive habits and behavioral traits they display could show us a lot about how we should be mapping out our content marketing strategies. Some of these are a bit more evident than others, yet they are nonetheless important to remember.

1.) Stay Persistent: Content marketing is a 24×7 job. Sometimes, the job feels like a wave pool, while at others, it can feel like rushing rapids. There’s a variety of problems that every content marketer is set to inevitably face – don’t let them bring you down. The world’s smartest people kept their eyes on the prize despite the adversities they faced. Thomas Edison attempted to create over 1000 light bulbs before he finally got it right.

2.) Write and Share Your Goals: According to the infographic, students who were given four weeks to accomplish a goal were far more likely to do so if they wrote them down and shared them with friends. Forty-three percent accomplished their goals without writing them down; meanwhile, 64 percent did so when they were written down and 76 percent did so when those goals were shared. If you’re having trouble prioritizing your content marketing initiatives, write them down and then collaborate on them with your colleagues or friends.

3.) Read…A Lot: The world’s smartest people were all avid readers. This isn’t too surprising, considering the fact that more reading leads to stronger verbal skills, more articulate thoughts, enhanced problem-solving skills, sharper concentration, improved writing skills and a better overall memory. In fact, just 15 minutes of reading per day can expose you to over one million new words per year. Remember that reading is just as – if not more – critical for content creation as writing and researching is. As my writing icon Stephen King says, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

4.) Think About Thinking: All of these brilliant individuals also thought about the concept of thinking, otherwise known as metacognition. Metacognition includes thinking about when and how to use particular strategies for learning and/or for problem-solving. This makes complete sense for a content marketer, whose primary job is content creation and developing new content creation strategies.

If you’re suffering from a particularly bad case of writer’s block or are struggling with lead generation or marketing concepts, remember that Einstein didn’t speak until he was four-years old, Gates’ first business was a failure, Franklin dropped out of school at age 10 and Beethoven was told he would be a failure.